Larry Grant was one of the 42 restricted free agents who did not receive an offer sheet. (AP)

Restricted free agents can receive offers from other teams, but their original team has the right to match that offer. If the team doesn’t match the offer, it is entitled to draft-choice compensation, depending on the level of tender of the player.

If a team signed Wallace, for example, it would forfeit a first-round pick. The price for Grant, a seventh-round pick, was less prohibitive. Not that it mattered.

Grant said he understood the realities before free agency began.

“It wasn’t frustrating,” Grant said. “I had a real in-depth conversation with my agent and he told me how the restricted free agent market was — there was nothing that was going to be happening. So when I saw high-profile guys like Mike Wallace not get many looks, I really wasn’t worried. I knew either way, if I was somewhere else or here, I was going to embrace the opportunity and make the best out of whatever position I’m in.”

The lack of an offer for Grant was good news for the 49ers. Grant and special-team standout Tavares Gooden, who played 12 defensive snaps last year, are the only backup inside linebackers on the roster with NFL experience.

With Grant back, the Niners keep a backup – for $1.26 million — that filled in admirably last year when Patrick Willis was sidelined with a hamstring injury. After Willis was injured in the first quarter of a win against the Rams on Dec. 4, Grant collected 29 tackles, two sacks and defended five passes in three-plus games. He capped his fill-in role by sealing a Christmas Eve win at Seattle with a sack-and-strip of Tarvaris Jackson.

His performance suggested Grant, 27, who started eight games with the Rams in 2010, might have a chance to earn a starting spot elsewhere in 2012. He has no chance to start in San Francisco, where he backs up Willis and fellow All-Pro NaVorro Bowman.

Grant will now have to wait until the spring of 2013 when he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.

“As a competitor in this business, everyone wants to play,” Grant said. “… I’m not in a rush for anything. I know good things come to people who wait. I’m just going to be patient and hopefully my time will come, wherever it is.”

Grant ticked off plenty of positives about returning to San Francisco, where he’s developed a close bond with Willis and Bowman. He has family in the area — he finished high school in Sacramento and attended City College of San Francisco — and believes he has a chance to experience success this season, even if he doesn’t start.

“I’m on a great team and I know there’s a very good chance that we could go to the Super Bowl,” Grant said. “I’m just blessed to be here.”